Hot Topics:

Gleaning hope when the harvest is done

Adams County food program will carry on after founder's retirement.

by TIM STONESIFER

For The Evening Sun

Posted:
08/18/2013 07:26:51 PM EDT

Jerry Althoff, organizer of the Adams County Gleaning Network, stands in the bed of his pickup during a glean near Aspers in this file photo. The 58-year-old in 2009 and in four years, Althoff and volunteers have gleaned 340,000-plus pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables. Althoff walked away from the project in the spring and soon after, the South Central Community Action Programs in Gettysburg took over. (THE EVENING SUN -- FILE)

Stand with Jerry Althoff in a farmer's field; look as the evening shadows spread over rows of green beans and listen as an old pickup creaks and crunches back out onto the blacktop, hobbling away. Watch him pull his eyes from the silhouette of a plow, crouched and waiting.

Then you'll have some idea of why the 58-year-old in 2009 started the Adams County Gleaning Network, a group that's worked to gather unharvested food from local fields and donate it, before it's plowed under.

And think of what Althoff's volunteers have gleaned in four years: 340,000-plus pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables; perhaps a half-dozen tractor-trailers full of free produce for those in need.

Then, you might understand why it was so hard this spring, when he had to walk away from the project.

"Believe me, it was not an easy decision," Althoff said recently. "But with my health, I just couldn't do it anymore."

First, though, Althoff met with some of those who've helped him glean - farmers and non-profits and a few of the volunteers who have followed him into the local fields - just to see if anyone was willing to step up. He wanted to see if anyone would even miss it.

"Turns out nobody wanted the gleaning to stop," he said.

But the question was: Who would carry on?

The answer, settled upon after much discussion, was the South Central Community Action Programs, in Gettysburg.

SCCAP was long the biggest beneficiary of the local gleaning, and with several food pantries in the county was well positioned to utilize the bulk of those local fruits and vegetables.

Advertisement

Last year, the site also became a sort of distribution center for other non-profits, who would pick up the free food from the center on North Stratton Street.

"It just made perfect sense," Althoff said.

And the switch was soon made.

For SCCAP, taking on the gleaning program - now called The Gleaning Project of South Central PA - means more of stretch in tough financial times for an already strapped non-profit. But according to executive director Megan Shreve, leaving all that food in the field was never really an option.

"We certainly weren't looking to take on more unfunded programs," she said. "But this one was so important, it's such a big part of any community solution to food insecurity."

Shreve said the long-term plan includes finding a permanent program coordinator, adding that the search has already begun. The hope, too, is to make the transition as seamless as possible, and to keep the level of produce pulled from the fields close to past levels.

That effort has been led in recent week by Melanie Meisenheimer, a Gettysburg College student who has worked with both the Althoffs and SCAAP to bridge the gap, as the program changes hands.

"I didn't really know what to expect when I first started in June," she said in an email. But "this summer has kind of been a crash-course in local agriculture, non-profit coordination, and the ins-and-outs of the American food system."

The group is on pace to glean 10,000 pounds of food by the end of August, she said.

But plenty of help is needed.

That means volunteers - local farmers; people willing to pick fruit and vegetables; those who can donate money to offset storage and transportation costs - are all welcome.

"We won't bring in as much (food) as last year," Shreve said, "but we have to think long-term."

The Althoffs, who own countryside Gardens in Mount Joy Township, have also shifted their focus. Jerry Althoff continues to undergo testing for chest pains and related symptoms.

Gleaners Jean LeGros, left, and Jan Althoff, pick strawberries at Peters Orchid in this file photo. Jan Althoff is the wife of Jerry Althoff, the organizer of local gleaning organizations that collect fresh fruits and vegetables to give to soup kitchens in Gettysburg. (THE EVENING SUN -- FILE)

It's been enough to slow him considerably, though not enough to keep him and wife Jan out of the fields.

They've been to several gleans this summer.

"But there's only so much of Jerry, and of me, to go around," Jan Althoff said.

Still, the uncertainty of spring seems now to have dried up, and many of those local volunteers who have gathered literally tons of tomatoes, apples and other foods over four years are at it again. In the past they've been up to their ears in corn, and nearly knee-deep in muddy bean fields. And things will only get busier in the fall.

"It's a true community program," Shreve said. "Those volunteers, that spirit, is always what made this work."

Much of the work has been done from pickup beds and old lawn chairs-set out in the waning light of a warm evening, then packed away again a few hours later, when it's too dark to do any more. The rest must be left in the field.

But the focus can't be on what doesn't get done, Althoff said. Instead you move forward, a row at a time. You think of those struggling who you can help.

And when it gets dark you bide your time, he said, hoping that seeds once planted will take root.